Tuesday, 18 March 2014

Beer House Club

There’s a beer club having a meeting at the front of the bar here at Beer House Club in Florence. Tonight it’s stouts that are being discussed and tasted, which is just as well as there are several on the taps (dry, imperial, oatmeal). Outside in the streets of Florence I passed a couple of bars that were pledging their troth to St Patrick’s night, which in one instance meant green and white balloons around the entrance and in another the promise of green beer. Here however at the Beer House Club there’s a glass of their own brewed Imperial Stout in front of me, a deep dark mahogany beer with a fluting of cascade and roast on the nose and a rich fullness on the palate. Another glass appears with the same beer in it, though this one has had dried ginger added during the rest period of fermentation. It’s 12 months old by now I’m told, but its ginger character is mellow and herbal, a gratifying addition to the creamy and appetisingly dry finish. People still like their IPAs I am told by the guy behind the bar, but late at night, he continues, they turn to Weissbier, maybe, he continues to muse, it’s something to do with the brisk carbonation and the quenching nature of the beer that makes it so effective after a meal. There’s a fridge full of bottles to the left of the bar, with beers from all over the place. I spot Demon Hunter from Birra Montegioco, a beer that appears in 1001 Beers, but which I have yet to try. It’s 8.5%, has a firm foam, and a blast from its nose can only be considered as mocha with hops. Meanwhile, the beer club continues its discussion and outside in the streets of Florence St Patrick’s night takes a downwards curve and the green and white balloons move ever so slowly in the night air.

Time present and time past

I’m a journalist and writer who happens to have beer and pubs as one of my specialist subjects (I also write about travel, food and the countryside). I love pubs and bars wherever they are around the world, the very best exemplify the words public house, a home from home — and I adore good beer whether it’s served on the Suffolk coast, hidden away in the Northern French countryside or something dark and mysterious in the depths of the Polish hinterland. You can read my journalism elsewhere or somehow pick up a copy of the much-underrated Big Book of Beer; or perhaps you are ploughing through 1001 Beers You Must Try Before You Die, where I have edited the work of over 40 of the world’s foremost authorities on beer, or travelling the UK with a copy of Great British Pubs to hand. I also do beer tasting events. This blog though is an attempt to loosen up the boundaries of what constitutes beer writing, have some fun, experiment, whatever. It might not work, I might get bored with it, I might get writer’s block and end up picking sprouts in an East Anglian field, but hey, whatever.